I escaped the war. My family’s still stuck | UNHEARD - video Dailymotion

The Independent

It took Ismail two years to reach the UK from Sudan, where he fled a life defined by conflict and a constant struggle to survive. He risked everything on a dangerous journey in hopes of supporting his family—many of whom remain in Sudan’s war-ravaged Zamzam refugee camp.This is his story.

Transcript

00:00In Libya, there's some smoglers.

00:04They took us by boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

00:09So crossing the Mediterranean Sea was very dangerous.

00:15It was very dangerous.

00:21In Sudan, it wasn't really good.

00:25It was just war after war.

00:28Because of war, I left my family.

00:31I started my journey from Sudan and I came here to the UK.

00:35Sudan to the UK was a really tough journey.

00:40It took me about two years.

00:43There is the Sahara Desert.

00:46The Sahara Desert is a very big desert located between Sudan and Libya.

00:54In the middle of the desert, so our lorry broke down.

00:59We stopped there in the desert for about two months.

01:04And then in Libya, I was there for about a year.

01:09In Libya, there's some smoglers.

01:13So I just paid about 1,000 pounds, Libyan money.

01:22And so they took us to one of the coastal cities in Libya.

01:28They took us by boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

01:33Crossing the Mediterranean Sea was very dangerous.

01:39It was very dangerous from the European Union, I think.

01:43There are very big boats.

01:45They know already that migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

01:50And they found us and they took from our small boat to their big ship.

01:58And they took us to Italy.

02:01And from Italy, they took us to somewhere, kind of a refugee.

02:08And without knowing any documents, I took train to Paris.

02:14And from Paris, I went to Calais.

02:20From Calais to the UK also was a very dangerous, very dangerous journey.

02:28So there is a train, a very long and flat train carrying the lorries from France to get to the UK.

02:38I just went to the train station and police.

02:41There is the police and security.

02:43They didn't see me.

02:44I just jumped on the train and I was lying between lorry and train.

02:49The train that came through the channel tunnel to Dover and so on.

02:57And so when the train came out from the channel tunnel,

03:02I just came out of the train and the police officers stopped me.

03:10So they took me to Liverpool.

03:12And so I had an interview with them and I just told them why I'm here and what I want.

03:21All my family members didn't know that I'm going to the UK at that time.

03:30Until when I came, when I arrived to the UK, I called them and I told them I'm here in the UK then.

03:38They were very, very happy that I'm safe and I'm alive, I'm OK.

03:45When the UK government granted me the right to leave after five years,

03:51so my refugee status is finished, expired and I renew it.

03:57So after you renew it, so anyone can have a right to apply for a British citizen.

04:05And so I was really passionate about that.

04:09So I'm just waiting for that time until that time came.

04:12I was reading that I was practicing for about a couple of months and I had an exam and I passed the exam.

04:21And I waited for about seven months.

04:24I'm a citizenship, a British citizen now.

04:27And last year, January, I managed to travel from here and I met my family.

04:36And I saw my mum and my brothers and then I got married when I went there.

04:42During the time I'm in Al-Fashir, so the war started getting worse and worse.

04:54RSF, they came to our village and they killed people and the war came to Al-Fashir.

05:02Even my house that me and my family live in, being hit by the missiles and so my family fled from that village.

05:16They went to the Zamzam refugee camp and Zamzam refugee camp also being attacked by RSF.

05:22They saw people dying in front of them.

05:25Even people, I know them, my relatives, they got killed in Zamzam refugee camp.

05:32I didn't know where they are, my mum and my brothers and their children.

05:38Until now, Zamzam refugee camp and Al-Fashir, the whole Sudan, there is no network.

05:44They cut the network, so you can't contact someone by phone.

05:48It was really difficult to find out the medicine, if someone is ill or injured.

05:55There is no hospital because they are living in a kind of small village at the moment.

06:03So there is no hospital.

06:06There is not any organisation to helping them.

06:11Really tough life they are living at the moment.

06:15It was really scary and so everyone just tried to get out of danger for their lives.

06:22So that's what happened there.

06:24When I first came to the UK, I lived in Liverpool for about ten months.

06:32And after that I moved to London.

06:35It was 2016.

06:37To live in London, I think, yeah, it's okay.

06:40Everything is easy, you know.

06:43There is not any difficulties about health, work and transport.

06:50Everything is easier.

06:53Currently, I'm working as a, I'm working in a warehouse.

06:59But before that, I was doing security also.

07:02I worked as a kitchen porter and currently I'm working in a, in a warehouse here in London.

07:11And everyone is very, very welcoming anywhere you go.

07:16These people are blind and kind.

07:18They try to talk to you, try to understand you.

07:23The culture in the UK also, I need to learn.

07:27I want to get to know the cultures here, more to understanding the life here.

07:33I'm still thinking to the back home, to my family and my culture.

07:38I'll send money because there's no, even my brothers, my family members, there's no place to,

07:48to someone go to work and bring the money.

07:51So that's why I just trying to, helping them.

07:55So my wife, she's in refugee camp in Uganda at the moment.

08:00She got a refugee ID and she's a pregnant now.

08:05She's a pregnant for six months now.

08:07I went more than two to three organizations.

08:11And anywhere I go, they say, so we can help.

08:17And they're going to give me other organizations, like a paper, the name.

08:22So you're going to just call these places.

08:27Yeah, at the time I just tried to bring her here before she gets, she gives birth.

08:35But I didn't have find any solution.

08:37UK government and just other people, they don't know what's happening there in Sudan at the moment,

08:47or any time in the past because there's no journalist to cover what's going on.

08:56So that's why people don't know what's going on there in Sudan exactly.

09:03My message to the UK government is help me to bring my wife here, to live with me.

09:10Instead of she, she stay there and I stay here.

09:14I want her to come here and stay with me forever.

09:18That's my message to the UK government.

09:21I think I'm going to, the most of my life I would be here in the UK.

09:27But I still, if Sudan is safe, I really want to go back to see my family and then come here.

09:35But my, most of my life I want to live here in the UK.

09:40I want to live here in the UK.

09:41I want to live here in the UK.

09:42I want to live here in the UK.

09:47so I'm here.

09:48So thank you very much.

09:54See you again.

I escaped the war. My family’s still stuck | UNHEARD

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